Technical Field
Technology disclosed herein relates to a vehicle bumper structure including a pressure tube-type pedestrian collision detection sensor.
Related Art
In a vehicle bumper structure including a pressure tube-type pedestrian collision detection sensor described in International Publication (WO) No. 2012/113362, an absorber is disposed adjacent to a vehicle front side of bumper reinforcement. A groove portion open toward the vehicle rear side is formed to the absorber, and a pressure tube is installed (fitted) inside the groove portion. When the pressure tube deforms during a collision between the vehicle and a colliding body, pressure sensors provided at both length direction end portions of the pressure tube output signals according to a change in pressure in the pressure tube, and an ECU determines whether or not the body colliding with the vehicle is a pedestrian.
However, there is room for improvement in the vehicle bumper structure including the pressure tube-type pedestrian collision detection sensor described above, with regards to increasing detection precision of the pressure tube-type pedestrian collision detection sensor. Namely, an upper side portion and a lower side portion of the groove portion of the absorber (namely, two, these being upper and lower, locations of the absorber) need to be squashed and deformed (undergo compression deformation) in order to deform the pressure tube during a collision between the vehicle and a pedestrian. If the two locations of the absorber are not deformed in a desirable manner during a collision between the vehicle and a pedestrian, the absorber is unable to press the pressure tube in a desirable manner. In such cases, the output from the pressure sensor is reduced, and there is a possibility that the detection precision of the pressure tube-type pedestrian collision detection sensor could be reduced.